Beau Lebens

Building the web, enjoying the wild.

Tag: colorado

  • Fjällräven Classic USA, 2018

    This year, for the third year in a row, I participated in the Fjällräven Classic USA here in Colorado. Read about the 2016 USA Fjällräven Classic and the 2017 USA Fjällräven Classic. As with previous years, this was a 3 day, 2 night backpacking trip in the Colorado backcountry, hosted by Fjällräven and their sister brands. This year felt like they are really hitting their groove with organization, distance, and difficulty, and I think it was overall the “best” one yet. Erika came along this year as well, and we did a lot fewer training hikes because we knew the course…

  • Canoeing the Colorado

    A few weeks ago, Erika and I joined some friends on the Colorado River for a repeat of a trip we took last year. I got all my gear sorted out on Thursday afternoon/evening, then drove out to Fruita (our put-in point) on Friday morning. By noon we were all loaded up in our canoes and ready to hit the water.

  • Fjällräven Classic USA, 2017

    This week, I’ve been roaming the Colorado wilderness with 250 of my closest/unknown friends, participating in the second annual Fjällräven Classic, USA. I participated in the inaugural event last year, which conveniently fell during my 3-month sabbatical from work. At the time, I said that no matter what else was going on, I would definitely be attending again in 2017. As promised, when the 2017 Classic was announced, I immediately grabbed tickets, and this time even talked Erika into going. Even though I’m stubborn, and had already committed to going, seeing that the trek would be somewhere in the range…

  • Classic Training Hike

    On Sunday, Erika and I went on a training hike, to start getting into shape for the Fjallraven Classic. This year it’s over 30 miles of backpacking within 3 days, and we’re both a bit nervous about being able to keep up the pace! We went up to White Ranch Park, and ended up hiking about 8 miles (Belcher Hill, Longhorn, Shorthorn, Longhorn, Whippletree, Belcher Hill), with roughly 20lb packs. We went pretty slow, but I think we did OK considering it was our first longer (and loaded) hike of the season. We’ll definitely need to get a few more in…

  • Snow-shoeing in Breckenridge, CO

    Yesterday I went up to Breck with Erika. She went snowboarding, and I tried out my new MSR snowshoes. I started out at the Breck Nordic Center, and hiked for maybe 3 miles or so, before heading back to Peak 8 to meet up for bloody marys and fries. It was a gorgeous day, and snowshoeing was fun. I ran into a few people who said there were moose around, but I didn’t see them unfortunately. Being out there made me really curious about what it’d be like to do with a full pack on, and be going backpacking in full winter. That’s still…